1. Work ethic, or lack thereof. Sure, you have hard-working people in Bangladesh, but for the most part, people are too laid back and happy with what they have - there seems to be very little drive to achieve more, be the best one can. Above average yet not exceptional talent can sometimes be molded into a winning habit, but for that to happen, the shortcomings in the talent bucket need to be compensated for with extreme hard work and training. Careers need to be treated as careers and not just a job that pays the bills and lets one come home and take a nap. Goals should be clearly defined and the path to reach them adhered to. If there's a better opportunity in Dhaka, don't stay back in Chittagong and sacrifice an improved life just because the local chicken haleem tastes better. We are culturally very lazy and the diet doesn't help; then again, look at how well China is doing in various sports even with an insane amount of rice in the diet. For a nation of 150 million, talent should be abundant. Change the attitude and half the battle might just be won.

2. Funds: There's no alternative to pouring the riches in to be able to compete with the best. The futbol team can be much better than it currently is. So can other athletes, at least at the SAAF level. Why do we need to import a gymnast from Michigan? When people can't eat, there's no point expecting somebody to give up a job that yields greater immediate monetary returns to come to your rigorous training spanning years, for free/pocket change. Pay these sissies so that you can *whip* them to glory.

4. Organization: We struggle to stage the NCL on a regular basis, let alone organizing training camps for some of the less popular sports. In a nation where people don't like to do their jobs and the process of getting something, anything done resembles a pathway through hell, the showstoppers are too many for effective organization.

nicely said, its definitely the attitude that is the main problem. Most bengalis still find it hard to accept that a sport can be a full time career. We also have very simple mentality where most peoples goal is to become doctor/engineer/teacher etc.
Funding would come if the people start taking priority in theses things but i guess that wont happen when the main priority is still fighting poverty. But its just strange how almost every other countries are doing better despite being in worse conditions. Population wise we are the worse country in sports.
by the way how behind is our hockey team compared to india or pakistan?